Phantom Banjo Read Free Page B

What with
all the coups and revolutions down there, everybody with any brains
whatsoever, including singers, tended to get wiped just for the fun
of it. But I'm glad you brought that up, because I'm going to start
by telling you a story that takes place around the Mexican border.
It's about a cowboy. You kids like cowboy stories?"
    They said they did, though the boy wasn't
really sure what a cowboy was. Maybe it was like the picture in the
old book of the Minotaur. A cow on the top and a boy on the bottom.
Maybe he'd seen one on PBS sometime, on a special about zoological
curiosities, but right now he was indignant. He had been promised
something else. "You said you 'd tell us about the bureaucrats and
politicians."
    "And businesspersons," his sister, who wanted
to be just like her mother when she grew up, prompted eagerly. "Oh,
please, I want there to be businesspersons making shrewd deals and
finding wonderful tax loopholes and all . . ."
    The woman chuckled. Times had changed some
since she'd started this line of work. But if she was going to
accomplish her mission, she couldn't start in preaching right away
about what she thought her audience needed to hear. She needed to
please them first, tie in their interests with what she knew was
good for 'em. "Okay, sis, you got it. Plenty of heroic
businesspersons, though I'm warning you, this is a real story and
they don't always win."
    The girl nodded gravely and the other
children wriggled with anticipation. If the good guys didn't always
win that just added to the excitement.
    "Don't leave out the bureaucrats," the boy
reminded her.
    "No sweat, buster. Cowboys and bureaucrats,
politicians and businesspersons it is. Now, I want you to remember
that devils are a lot older than you or even me, and they carry
grudges a long, long time. The reason the head devil knew so much
about using politicians to get at the songs was he'd tried it once
before, when he used a tin-eared politician to invoke an evil spell
upon the land called a blacklist. He destroyed many singers then,
turning them one against the other for reasons that had nothing to
do with music, silencing some forever, causing some to all but die
of despair. Until only a very few, including the great Sam
Hawthorne, who you’ll hear about a little later, were able to
withstand his power."
    "Wait, "said the boy. "If this blacklist was
an evil spell, how could that Hawthorne guy have beat it? Was he a
devil too?"
    "Depends on who was telling it, kiddo. But
no, that wasn't why. Hawthorne was young and strong then and very
smart and very dedicated. And then of course there was his magic
banjo, but I'm not going to say another word about that right now.
Bureaucrats and businesspersons you wanted and bureaucrats and
businesspersons is what you're gonna get."
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
    The President was greatly troubled and he
called his advisors to join him at his ranch for barbecue so they
could talk things over. "Boys," he said, "oh, and ladies too,"
because the President, who didn't really think a lady's place was
in the cabinet unless that was where she kept the dishes, sometimes
forgot he had a few yes-women along with his yes-men, "despite our
valiant efforts, this country still seems to be going to the dogs.
Rampant socialism and liberalism still flourish within our
boundaries. In spite of what I tell them is good for them, people
keep whining about the environment and socialized medicine. They
cry because there's not enough money to go around but have
repeatedly backed our enemies in Congress in thwarting our efforts
to start a nice long profitable war that will let us annex
lucrative mineral rights in a few two-bit countries that are going
to the Reds anyway. Damned cowards are afraid of the bomb. As if
the Reds had the guts to use it."
    "No way, Bruce," said Secretary of Defense
General Mortimor Boron. "Look, boss, you shouldn't get yourself in
a sweat trying to please those civilians. They wanted a space
program too and